Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
her and join her in the light. As the lights fade, a slide of Lake Baikal appears on the back screens silhouet ting the actors who raise their arms as if to fly off in the dark. The idea and the feeling of the original scene was conveyed without any words. This is the way Ellen Stewart, one of the most respected people in American theatre and the director of La MaMa, where Yara is a resident company, en courages us to work. She always asks “Will blind peo ple understand your piece? Well how about deaf peo ple, or people from China?" She asks these questions to make us think about how to communicate directly with other people through all the means available in theatre. Ellen came to Kyiv for the opening of the festi val. This was the third time she traveled with us to Ukraine. She rang the bell before our show, as she always does at La MaMa. The audience in Kyiv loved her, they also really enjoyed our show. No one had ever seen anything like this before in Kyiv. Afterwards, I saw Oleh Lysheha smiling and was very relieved. You never know how poets will re act when you interpret their work on stage. I was es pecially concerned because we had to change the gender in a section of his poem that was a song in our play. In New York, Cecilia Arana sang the song in English translation. I walked into this museum Right near the canal... No one else was there... And in a corner under glass I saw a dried out pair of ancient slippers, Which must have lain in some bog... The feet they once held Have probably turned to dust.... Pointy, graceful, With curved straps I couldn't pull myself away from them... Would you believe me If I told you That my foot used to be so happy In those slippers?...3 When we restored the original Ukrainian we realized that the masculine gender of the speaker in the original had to be replaced by the feminine if the song was going to fit into our play. I told Lysheha about this change over the phone. He seemed amused and said the change wouldn't bother him, but it’s hard to gauge true responses over the phone. I was glad to see it hadn't. 3"Swan" by Oleh Lysheha translated by Virlana Tkacz & Wanda Phipps Oksana Zabuzhko and many other poets were at our opening, as were many local artists, such as Nina Matvienko, who had worked with us on previous shows. The first night also brought a number of repre sentatives from the American Embassy including James Seward, the cultural attache and Victor Kytasty, director of America House. There were also several representatives from Kyiv's Soros Foundation, whose Moscow branch had paid for the travel expenses for the Buryats. Newspaper, radio and television carried the news about the opening. There were many young people in the audience. Our students from the Cultural Institute were there, as were students from the Theatre Institute in Kyiv where I had lectured on American Theatre. Our Harvard students were there, too, and we were very grateful to them. They had helped us find a great tech crew among their English speaking friends in Kyiv. There were dozens of slides which had to be projected on four different screens during the show. On opening night the crew managed to project them all without making any mistakes. Very special guests were the members of the Buryat community in Kyiv. They brought flowers and several had tears in their eyes as they thanked us after the show. They said they couldn't believe that they were seeing such an authentic view of their culture in Kyiv. After our opening we arranged a concert of tradi tional Buryat songs and music at the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Sayan Zhambalov performed throat singing with Erdeny Zhaltsanov, who accompa nied them on the morin khoor. Erzhena Zhambalov joined them on the folk songs. The artists also per formed their own works for an audience which included students, music lovers and Buryats who live in Kyiv. Zabryna Guevara and Lydia Radziul rehearse the Ukrainian translation of a song from Virtual Souls with Natalka Hon- charenko. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
